Call to Glory

- Season 1

(1984)

"Col. Raynor Sarnac as a pilot with the 'right stuff. He's flown missions in two wars and has risen to command a reconnaissance wing at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, where he pilots his flyers and his family through the turbulent '60s." (Quoted from the description that accompanies the episode.)

The entire Sarnac family is thrown into turmoil when Raynor receives a lucrative job offer in the private sector.

Raynor faces one of his toughest missions as he tries to prevent a bitter ex-pilot from exposing the details of a top secret mission.

A dangerous top-secret mission takes Raynor over Red China to see if the Chinese have developed an Atomic Bomb.

Wesley Sarnac confronts the ugly face of racial discrimination.

Col. Sarnac is sent on a classified mission to Vietnam by President Kennedy, to meet with and assess President Diem; to help determine in which direction diplomatic relations should go. Strained relations between Vietnamese Catholics and Buddhists complicate the issue.

After losing a friend to the crash of an experimental fighter aircraft, Raynor is called to Washington to testify to a congressional committee on the future of the aircraft's continued development. While Raynor wants to kill the project, complicating the issue is the plane's designer, one of Raynor's best friends, who once saved Raynor's life, and who pleads with Raynor to recommend continued R&D on the airframe. Meanwhile, Wesley gets involved with a friend helping to prepare for the Civil Rights March on Washington, and misses out on the family's Presidential ...

Raynor is asked to take to take Colonel Sakamoto of the Japanese Air Self Defense Force (JASDF) on a flight to test newly-designed engines. During a vertical climb test, a catastrophic engine failure requires them to bail out in the wilderness of the Sierra Navadas, and ther survival skills are put to an extreme test as Air Force Search and Rescue hunts for them.

Aeronautic Engineer Josh Farrell and the "YF-13" are back (from Episode 7), and this time it's being test-flown by another good friend of the Sarnac family, Hal Bonner. Raynor, flying a "chase" plane, has a different interpretation of the test flight than Hal does, and Josh Farrell is still bitter from Raynor's Congressional testimony to terminate the aircraft's development.

A journalist with an anti-military "chip" on her shoulder complicates the testing of the development of a new weapons system technology.

"Raynor and Vanessa are so involved in their friends' marital problems, they don't notice that Carl is facing a crisis of his own." (Quoted from the description that accompanies the episode.)

"Tension mounts in the Sarnac household as Raynor prepares for a mission that has already claimed the life of one of his best test pilots." (Quoting from the description that accompanies the episode.)

"Raynor is forced to face the harsh truth that an old friend is really a spy for the KGB." (Quoting from the description that accompanies the episode.)

"A flight or over Vietnam turns into a journey of terror when Raynor is shot down and captured by the North Vietnamese." (Quoted from the description that accompanies the episode.)

"Stiff penalties await a pilot who disobeys orders and brings a Russian defector back to America." (Quoted from the description that accompanies the episode.)

"The news that a child is on the way puts a wedge in the Sarnacs' marriage as they both try to cope with feelings of doubt and guilt." (Quoted from the description that accompanies the episode.)

Elly, Patrick's mother, returns to California, but is given the cold shoulder by him. Vanessa has gone back to work, but their relationship is still strained, so Raynor takes her away for a weekend beach retreat, but Vanessa still feels the need to "get away", so she goes to L.A. to stay with Elly. Jackie is concerned about Patrick's worsening attitude, and asks Raynor to intervene.

The SR-71 Blackbird arrives at Edwards AFB, and Raynor is the test pilot. His father, Carl, has resumed stunt flying in his biplane, and Raynor doesn't approve, but Raynor doesn't know that Carl doesn't have long to live. Carl finally tells Raynor that he's dying from leukemia, and they have some frank discussions about life and death. Meanwhile, an old boyfriend of Jackie's turns up, and Raynor and Vanessa don't approve.

Raynor goes to Vietnam to "assess the situation", assured that he can adopt the young orphaned boy, Tran. He reunites with CPL "Jonesy" and Willy Nighthawk. Tran goes missing, and Nighthawk's going to help Raynor find Tran.

"Raynor has to fly this top-secret mission and go to Washington DC." (Quoted from the description that accompanies the episode.)

"Raynor meets with President Kennedy. The family goes with him." (Quoted from the description that accompanies the episode.)

"This episode mainly concentrates on the relationship between Raynor and Jackie. Jackie is growing into womanhood and Rainer is coming to grips with it ." (Quoted from the description that accompanies the episode.)

Eight years have passed since Carl's death and Raynor has been released after three years as a prisoner in Vietnam. Raynor is questioned about his part in the death of a C.I.A Agent and the Sarnac family goes on with the children as adults.